Stories by Tony Bradley

McAfee today revealed its McAfee Threat Report for the third quarter of 2010. Information like that provided by McAfee in these quarterly reports is valuable for IT admins -- enabling them to keep a finger on the pulse of malware, and to stay in touch with emerging attack techniques and trends.

Passwords are the predominant means of securing sensitive data, and that is why there are established best practices defining password policies. Sadly, though -- the most critical data is often less secure because Admin passwords function outside of those policies and are rarely changed or updated.

With Black Friday quickly approaching, and retailers racing to outdo each other with earlier and earlier deals, it is safe to say that the holiday shopping season has begun. If you're shopping online, though, and paying with PayPal -- be warned. There is a phishing attack targeted just for you.

Perhaps you've heard that the Apple Mac OS X operating system is simply more secure by design and not prone to the security flaws and vulnerabilities that plague the dominant Microsoft Windows operating system? Well, don't believe the hype. Apple unleashed an update for Mac OS X this week which fixes a massive 134 vulnerabilities.

Yesterday was sort of a busy day for Adobe security. Of course, that doesn't seem like such an uncommon occurrence these days. Adobe issued an update to address a security flaw in Flash, and followed up with a new security advisory about a vulnerability impacting Adobe Reader.

Two years ago almost nobody had heard of Android. Now it's nearly ubiquitous among smartphone users, and it's on track to become the most popular mobile operating system in the United States. When it comes to business use, though, Android still has some growing to do. Here's how to keep your Android phones and tablets safe from malware and hackers.

Last week a malware threat emerged that impacted both Windows and Mac OS X systems. To be fair, the attack is more social engineering than PC exploit, but it impacts Mac OS X users just the same. ESET's David Harley has written a more detailed analysis of the Boonana threat, and identified some elements that are contrary to initial reports.

Microsoft Security Essentials is fake. Well, it is and it isn't. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antimalware protection program from Microsoft, but a new malware threat identified by security software vendor F-Secure is also masquerading as Microsoft Security Essentials. You want to avoid that one.

In the course of researching and preparing volume 9 of the Security Intelligence Report, Microsoft analysts discovered an interesting trend. According to Microsoft's findings, attacks against Java have recently surged to unprecedented levels -- dwarfing attacks against Adobe PDFs.

Everyone knows that the Mac OS X operating system is just inherently secure. Any Apple loyalist will gladly explain to you everything that is wrong with Microsoft Windows, and how happy they are with not having to worry about malware and exploits on their shiny new Mac. So, I guess Macs don't need security software and we have nothing left to talk about...

Adobe released two new security updates today. The patches for Adobe RoboHelp and Adobe InDesign are both rated Important, and Adobe recommends that affected users apply the necessary updates as soon as possible.

Microsoft this week unveiled the ninth volume of its Security Intelligence Report (SIR). The semi-annual assessment of the state of computer and Internet security and overview of the threat landscape generally yields some valuable information. This particular edition of the Security Intelligence Report focuses its attention on the threat posed by botnets.

The online world was all aflutter yesterday with news of a worm spreading through Twitter. The "onMouseOver" issue--which presented pop-up boxes and redirected users to porn sites -- was quickly handled by Twitter, but the events that led up to it hold some valuable lessons for IT.

Google launched a <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/196932/encrypted_search_comes_to_google.html">new beta service this week</a>--encrypted search using SSL (secure sockets layer) to protect searches from being snooped or intercepted while traversing the Internet. <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/196908/google_offers_encrypted_web_search_option.html?tk=rel_news">Encrypted Google search</a> is still not entirely private, but it has benefits for individuals and businesses to <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195659/users_are_their_own_worst_enemy_for_online_privacy.html">ensure sensitive information is not exposed</a> to prying eyes.

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